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Help needed about cucumbers
ObsessedPlantswoman
Posts: 69
in Fruit & veg
I have bought the rather expensive indoor cucumber seed passandra F1. (5 seeds for £3 and only two sprouted) they are female and should not be pollinated by male flowers as it makes the cucumber bitter.
however my friend gave me a cucumber and she doesn’t know what type it is. It seems to be producing male and female flowers, so that means it NEEDS to be pollinated. I have planted these together in the greenhouse and am now concerned that the male flower will pollinate my girls only cucumbers...do you see the problem?
if I put her one outside it might die of cold...or not, but bees could still sneak in the pollen into my greenhouse I think!!!
if I put her one outside it might die of cold...or not, but bees could still sneak in the pollen into my greenhouse I think!!!
Any thoughts?
0
Posts
pollination will make them bitter?
It's not necessarily the case that because it's producing both male and female flowers that it must need to be pollinated. You have 2 options really; either leave it and remove all the male flowers - you may or may not get fruit from it but at least your expensive ones will be 'safe'. Or you snip off the male flowers for as long as it takes where you are to be reasonably sure you're done with frosts, then take it out and put in a pot in a sheltered spot somewhere outside and keep your fingers crossed. As long as you don't put it right by the greenhouse door, you probably won't get accidental cross pollination, but the further away you can get it the safer you'll be.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I grow 1 Mini-Munch and get a minimum of about 150 cucumbers from it and usually many more.
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
@Pete.8 good point, maybe I will just ditch the intruder!